Partners was started by Steve and Oddny Gumaer after a back packing trip into Sho Klo refugee camp in 1994. According to Steve "you can't just pray for 1.5 million refugees, tell them that Jesus loves them, and then leave them hungry, without clothes, and sick; you have to do something for them to demonstrate the heart and truth behind the prayer." Partners Relief & Development is registered as a non-profit charity in Australia, the United States, Canada and Norway. Currently Partners helps thousands of refugees and displaced people in Thailand, Burma, and Indonesia. As an organisation with a growing body of consultants, board members, and staff, Partners takes its inspiration from the words of John the disciple who said-- "let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:18)